Gatherers
Each night I would have these weird dreams. I would be walking out in the snow somewhere. I think it was in the clearing in the woods behind my home... I'm not sure. I would be walking through and the snow would be falling really heavily, and I would see these bizarre silhouettes moving in the woods. They were all shapes and sizes. They were humanoid for sure, and some of them carried strange sticks. The dreams would end just as they noticed me. When I would wake up in the morning, I would look out my bedroom window toward the clearing and thought I saw something retreating into the woods. After about a month of these unusual dreams, one night I decided to investigate the woods. I put on my winter jacket, my boots, my hat, a flashlight, and my gloves and headed out. The sun was already beginning to set and the snow was falling quite heavily. I crunched through the snow and toward the clearing. At this point I still saw nothing but the snow and the nearby forest. I stopped walking and took a quick look around. From out in the woods I heard a crunching sound. Puzzled, I foolishly decided to head further in to see if I could track down the source. It was pitch black in the forest, so I was glad I had brought along a flashlight. I clicked the ON button and shined the light around me. I still saw nothing, but further in I heard the crunching sound again. Still wondering what it was, I kept on going. I was beginning to question myself by now though. Eventually I made my way to a barn sitting in disrepair out in the woods. I walked over to the large doors on the front and pulled, but they wouldn't budge. I heard the crunching sound once again coming from the other side of the barn. I was more than a little scared now, but still I pressed on. I walked slowly through the snow and to the other side of the barn, trying not to make any noise. When I finally made it to the other side, I discovered a large hole in the back of the barn. I shut off the flashlight, gulped, and cautiously walked in. It was dark, of course, but so far I hadn't heard any sounds since I entered. That soon changed. From somewhere in the barn I heard heavy breathing and a kind of scuffling sound. That was when I should have left, but being the fool that I am, I stayed right in place. I listened a little longer and heard a sudden cough. I'd had enough by this point and decided to click the flashlight back on. I regretted that. Standing only about five feet away from me was a humanoid figure wearing a disturbing suit that seemed to be made from animal fur. The head of the suit was a cylindrical shape, had a long wiry nose, terrifying round eyes, antlers, and a gaping mouth. In its hand was a long stick tipped with a stone arrowhead. I stared in fear as the thing gazed at me motionlessly. Suddenly the thing gave off an inhuman shriek and threw its spear to the ground. I began to back up and heard more shrieks coming from outside the barn followed by crunching footsteps through the snow. I had no clue what the hell was going on at this point, and I hightailed it out of there... or I tried. When I reached the hole in the back of the barn, I was met with another humanoid figure, but this one was wearing a horrifying fur suit with a mask resembling a Chinese dragon with a huge pig snout, overgrown tusks, and horns on its head. I screamed and flicked off my flashlight before I ducked back into the barn. To this day I sure am glad that those things couldn't see too well in the dark. I heard footsteps coming into the barn, soon followed by frantic scratching. They were looking for me. In a mad dash, I fled through the hole in the barn. I heard the sounds of them pursuing me, and when I looked back I saw four individual humanoid monsters chasing me through the woods. I finally made it to the clearing, but the monsters were still chasing after me. By the time I made it back to my home, they were coming close to catching me. I ran around to my front door and hurried inside and locked the door. The things pounded and pounded at the front door, but they never made it in. I ran upstairs to my room and waited out the next few hours until dawn in fear. The whole time I was accompanied by the horrid shrieks of the monsters and the pounding on my front door. Finally the sun had begun to rise, and the shrieking and pounding dissipated. I went downstairs slowly until I reached the living room. I checked out the windows to see if they were still there. They weren't, but I could see footprints outside. I opened up my front door carefully and followed the footprints to my backyard. I could see that they did indeed lead back to the woods. The whole ordeal had actually happened. Needless to say, I moved out of that house immediately after the terrifying incident. I don't know what on Earth those ungodly things were, but I am glad that I got out of there alive... Category:Fiction Category:ManraptorHurrr's Content Category:Horror Category:Stories Category:Original Content